By TONY VENEZIANO

World of Outlaws

Knoxville, IA-- June 27, 2009--Terry McCarl had been in contention a number of times for wins this season with the World of Outlaws and came up just short in each of those bids. He entered Saturday night's event at his home track of Knoxville Raceway with three runner-up finishes with the series in 2009 and also had three second-place finishes at the legendary half-mile.

McCarl put all of those near misses behind him with a dominating performance in the World of Outlaws final stop of the season and the famed track on Saturday night leading flag to flag to pick up his eighth career A-Feature win with the series in a race that was completed in less than seven minutes and ran caution free.

"It felt good to come home and win tonight and to hold off Donny Schatz," said McCarl. "I always feel like these are good tune-ups for the (Knoxville) Nationals. We almost won this race last time and he got us late in the race. I feel like we are a contender if we keep our stuff together."

McCarl started on the pole for the 25-lap A-Feature for the second consecutive night in the Big Game Treestands Maxim and the fourth time on the season as he chased his first World of Outlaws win since last fall. After starting first on Friday night at U.S. 36 Raceway, and falling to sixth by the end of that race, he was determined on Saturday night to stay at the front of the field. McCarl set a blistering pace, lapping all the way up to the eighth-place finisher.

"I couldn't sleep last night, I was so disappointed in myself," admitted the winner. "We were really fast last night at U.S. 36 (Raceway). What a great race track it was. I just misread the track and we backed her up last (Friday) night."

Leading from the outset on Saturday at Knoxville, McCarl battled Kraig Kinser for the first couple of laps, with the latter using the high side in turns three and four for each of the first three laps to try and get a run on the leader. McCarl began to pull away on the fourth lap and was in traffic by the seventh circuit. He continued to work traffic for most of the remainder of the 25-lap contest. A couple of times he was held, giving Kinser a chance to close in, but once he put a lapped car back between himself and the runner-up, he would pull away again.

"We were great at the beginning and then I got a little loose and I had to settle down and figure out where my car was good," explained the veteran driver. "My brother Tom was on my shoulder there, telling me to get back up top and drive like I used to when I was a kid and let it rip and honk that thing around there. When I moved up I felt a lot better and built up some speed. I was thinking about him right there and settled down and was able to be aggressive up top and let the motor ring out. If someone was going to beat us, they were going to have to be pretty damn fast."

Donny Schatz, who won last month at Knoxville with the World of Outlaws, started fifth on Saturday night and used a late pass of his teammate Kraig Kinser to come home second in the Armor All J&J. He fell back to sixth on the start and it took him nine laps to work his way around Don Droud Jr. to move back into fifth. The three-time and defending series champion then worked on 20-time series title winner Steve Kinser for a number of spots as the pair battled for the fourth spot. After Kinser moved into third on lap-20, Schatz followed him and was able to get around Lucas Wolfe for fourth. Just two laps later coming off the fourth turn, Schatz went low and powered his way around both Steve Kinser and his son Kraig to go from fourth to second in one corner.

"It really did come on at the end," Schatz said of his car. "It will be fun when its 40 laps for the Nationals. These 25 lap races are short and that's just the way it goes. We knew that going in and could have made a few adjustments for that, but my guys gave me an awesome race car. It just took me too long to figure out how to drive it. Typically I don't have that problem, but right now I did. I guess I'll have to go sit down at the drawing board and figure out what I did wrong and what I need to do to fix it."

Despite not having the help of any cautions to bunch the field up, Schatz was able to gain significant ground throughout the race in lapped traffic as he patiently worked his way to the front.

"That's what we always strive for," said the North Dakota native of non-stop races. "When you get on tracks that fast you have to pick it up a level. We had to definitely pick it up a couple of levels. It was a great night. To have a two-three finish for TSR (Tony Stewart Racing) is a great finish. Obviously we wanted to win, but we'll settle for a second tonight because we have to."

Kraig Kinser wound up third in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim to earn his third consecutive finish of fourth or better. He started the week with a fourth-place effort at Nodak Speedway in North Dakota on Sunday, then was third on Friday night at U.S. 36 Raceway in Missouri and wrapped up the three-race stretch with a podium finish at the famed Knoxville Raceway.

"Anytime you can run this well at Knoxville is good," said Kinser. "We ran second for a long time and thought we might have had something for Terry (McCarl) in traffic. It just never really played out for us. We got behind two lapped cars racing and Donny caught us and got a big run on us. I figured someone would be knocking on the door with how much I got slowed up there. We good and everyone did a good job."

The third generation driver was not surprised to see the 25 lap event go non-stop. With the level of competition this season on the World of Outlaws trail caution free races have occurred a few times.

"When you get 40 cars here, the 24 that make the feature are really good cars and really good racers," he shared. "It's not unusual to have it go all the way green. We have had a few this year and probably more than I remember in the past."

Steve Kinser ended up fourth in the Quaker State Maxim, with Jason Sides rounding out the Top-Five in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim after starting 12th to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award,

Jason Meyers was sixth aboard the GLR Investments KPC, with Lucas Wolfe seventh in the Allebach Racing Maxim. Johnny Herrera was eighth in the Perfect Circle Bending Maxim. Don Droud Jr. was ninth in the Casey's General Stores Maxim and Tim Kaeding rounded out the Top-10 piloting the DTR Transport KPC.

The World of Outlaws return to action on Friday, July 3 at Huset's Speedway in South Dakota, before heading to Eagle Raceway in Nebraska on the Fourth of July.

KNOXVILLE RACEWAY NOTES

* FAST QUALIFIER: Jason Meyers paced the 39 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the semi-banked half-mile oval at 14.886 seconds at 121.082 mph. For his qualifying effort, Meyers earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Bronson Maeschen (4), Lucas Wolfe (3), Donny Schatz (2), and Johnny Herrera (1).

* QUALIFYING WINNERS: Steve Kinser, Terry McCarl, Don Droud Jr. and Donny Schatz won heat races. Terry McCarl won the Crane Cams Dash. Wayne Johnson won the B-Main.

* FEATURE WINNERS: There has been 32 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature event held in 2009. The winners include: Joey Saldana (Volusia Speedway Park, Silver Dollar Speedway, Thunderbowl Raceway, Lone Star Speedway, Houston Raceway Park, The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway, Virginia Motor Speedway, Lawrenceburg Speedway, Dodge City Raceway Park-twice and U.S. 36 Raceway), Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park-twice, The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Knoxville Raceway, Eldora Speedway, Canandaigua Speedway, Lawrenceburg Speedway and River Cities Speedway), Jason Meyers (Silver Dollar Speedway, Paducah International Raceway, I-96 Speedway and Red River Valley Speedway), Danny Lasoski (Delaware International Speedway and Nodak Speedway), Dale Blaney (Attica Raceway Park), Randy Hannagan (Thunderbowl Raceway), Greg Hodnett (Williams Grove Speedway), Tim Kaeding (Riverside International Speedway), Chad Kemenah (Manzanita Speedway), Steve Kinser (Tri-State Speedway) and Terry McCarl (Knoxville Raceway).

* HALF-MILE WINNERS: \ Knoxville Raceway is a semi-banked half-mile oval. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series has raced 14 times this season on a track that size. The winners include: Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park-twice, The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Knoxville Raceway and Eldora Speedway), Joey Saldana (Volusia Speedway Park, Lone Star Speedway and Virginia Motor Speedway), Jason Meyers (I-96 Speedway and Red River Valley Speedway), Greg Hodnett (Williams Grove Speedway), Chad Kemenah (Manzanita Speedway), Danny Lasoski (Delaware International Speedway) and Terry McCarl (Knoxville Raceway).